


Experience Mayview

by greenshi



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen, Mild Language, Slice of Life, how do i tag being eaten by a shadow spirit?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:55:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28320507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenshi/pseuds/greenshi
Summary: "You're in Mayview, the town on two hills, with nothing but a pristine lake and friendly people in between!"(gift for @carotidpulse for the pnat secret santa. happy holidays!)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	Experience Mayview

Max was starting to get tired of this. 

Sure, he could deal with ghosts and spirits and the general weirdness of Mayview, but this? This was just ridiculous. 

Hanging in his locker was a poster of some vintage car which had been scribbled over with hearts and sparkles. Whoever had done this had even written “ M+C 4ever” in the top corner. 

This was not the first time something like this had appeared in his locker, nor would it be the last. Max just stared the poster down, as if his glare would be enough to banish it forever. 

“Aww, Max! Did I catch you at a bad time? Too busy...admiring something?” a sickly sweet voice asked behind him. Max turned to see Isabel smiling at him, eyes full of mischief. 

“Yeah, I was admiring your forgery skills. I’ll admit, they're almost not terrible.” Max replied, wearing his own fake smile. Isabel put a hand to her chest, feigning offence. 

“Max! How dare you pin this on me. I have nothing to do with you or whatever you keep in your locker.”

“Right, ‘cause it’s not like you can flip through doors or anything like that.” Max said, pointedly looking away from the umbrella hanging off Isabel’s wrist. Isabel just laughed at him, shrugging. 

“Whatever you say, Max. Just know, I don’t judge you or your...thoughts about vehicles.”

“Please shut up.”

~~~

Mina stared down at her phone, a not uncommon scowl along her lips. Rick had messed up, again, and he needed her help, again. For as much as it was a positive that he was reaching out at all instead of keeping all of his baggage to himself, that didn’t stop Mina from being annoyed. She did not have the time for this. 

“God, Spender...when I get over there, a few thorns and poisons are going to be the last of your fucking worries…”

“What’s going to be the last of his fucking worries?”

Whipping her head around, Mina found Hijack floating just outside the door, looking mildly confused. 

“Wh-Hijack! Don’t repeat that!”

“Repeat what?”

“You know what! I thought you were still downstairs with Hotwire, when did you-?”

“Oh yeah! Hotwire won’t give me a turn in Wii Bowling, can you tell him to fucking give me one?”

“HIJACK! What did I just say?”

“You asked why I was up here!”

“Yes, but-”

Mina’s phone buzzed again, reminding her of what started this argument. She sighed, pocketing it. 

“You know what? Nevermind.”

~~~

“Fif...ty...three!”

With one last huff, Ed fell to the ground in a pile of exhaustion and sweat. Above him, Muse looked over him with his usual bored expression. 

“That all you got? Come on, double it, at least!”

“I can’t!” Ed wheezed, throwing his noodle arms in the air for emphasis. “I...I can’t even breathe right now! If I do anymore, I’ll die!”

“If this is all it takes to kill you, then I’m surprised you’re still kicking. Now, come on, get up. The world won’t give you a chance to catch your breath, and neither will I.”

Muse nudged Ed with his foot, though that didn’t seem to encourage the boy to move. With a sigh, Muse instead reached to his side, grabbed Ed’s water bottle, and dumped it over him.

“Phugh-! Hey!” Ed choked out, sitting up. “What gives?”

“There, that seemed to motivate you. Now, back on the pull-up bar before I do the same with ink.”

Ed groaned in annoyance, but did as he was told with slow, sore movements. 

“I haaaaate yoooooou.”

~~~

This was it. It was all over. 

Lucifer stared down the Shadow Spirit, his eye filled with fear and his hands shaking. His power was drained and weak, not nearly enough to hold back this being any longer. The Shadow Spirit encroached its spiraling tendrils around the small radius of dim light remaining, allowing itself to take its time to toy with its prey. 

Against his better judgement, Lucifer took his eye off of the Shadow Spirit and looked instead at the still sleeping form of Richard Spender. His face was scrunched into that of discomfort, cold sweat dripping down his face. From the perspective of any outsider, it would have seemed like a simple bad dream, but the truth was far darker. 

Lucifer was snapped back to reality as one of the tendrils hooked around his wrist and neck. The Shadow Spirit was done playing, now it just wanted to devour the being that had kept it at bay all this time. Lucifer fought back, though only due to instinct. This was a battle he couldn’t win, he knew that. 

The expressionless face opened its maul, pulling Lucifer towards it. He raised his free hand, using the last of his energy to shine a painful ray of light straight into its core, but it proved useless. The Shadow Spirit simply took the pain, its groan sounding like steel being torn apart in a storm. 

In an instant, the faint glow disappeared entirely. Lucifer vanished into the darkness, his final thoughts being of despair. He knew this fate was inevitable, he alway knew that. But being here, finally having to face it as not a distant future, but as the current reality, finally made it sink in. 

This town was doomed. It always was. And, no matter how hard they tried or hoped for a different outcome, it always would be. 

~~~

“Easy now...Easy...Easyyyyy…”

Max’s dad stared down the Jenga tower, fingers shaking with intensity as he maneuvered the block from its place. After a moment of uncertainty, he ripped his arm back and yanked the piece away, bringing the whole tower down with it. 

“Well, there goes that round.” Max muttered, looking over the mess on the ground. 

“Dad, you had the first turn! How did you screw that up?” Zoey asked, almost looking angry in disbelief. 

“...Y’know, that strategy usually works. But, oh well! You know what they say; rather lose in an interesting way than win in a boring one.”

“Nobody says that.”

As Max’s dad and Zoey continued to bicker as they picked up the blocks, Max simply took the opportunity to check on the text he had reserved prior to his dad’s undoing. It was from Isabel. 

‘max, you got a minute? it’s important.’

‘Yeah sure, what’s up?’

‘well, idk how to tell you this, but…’

As Max waited for the next text, he felt something shift in the air. It was as if a deep fog of dread had come out of nowhere, weighing down his shoulders and tightening his throat. He wasn’t sure why, but he had the sense that something terrible had happened. 

Looking over, he saw that his dad and sister seemed unaffected. In the distance, he could hear Hissin’ Pete panicking in his room. Finally, after a moment that seemed to stretch on for infinity, he received the second message. 

‘it looks like hes taken :(‘

Attached was an image of Lightning McQueen smiling and looking over at a smaller, blue car. A third message was sent immediately after. 

‘so sorry. but hey, maybe once the doctors finished, you can have your shot with the ghost train again ;)’

In a wave of simultaneous relief and rage, Max was able to shake off whatever he was feeling before and respond. 

‘Isabel, I hope you know that I hate you.’

‘lol’


End file.
